Wired Into Westchester

Texas-based provider expands in region

MetroPCS Communications Inc., a 7-year-old Dallas company with a regional office in Hawthorne, this month launched its flat-rate, pay-as-you-go wireless communications service in the five boroughs of New York City and in an area of New Jersey including the cities of Newark, Jersey City and Paterson. As part of its continued Northeast expansion that began in Philadelphia in July 2008, the company also this month launched service to New England in metropolitan Boston and in Worcester, Mass., Providence, R.I., and Manchester, N.H.

In Yonkers, retail-division brokers at NAI Friedland Realty Inc. said they recently completed three lease deals on behalf of MetroPCS dealers. The five-year leases were for 2,000 square feet at 13 Main St. in downtown Yonkers, 800 square feet at 798-800 Yonkers Ave. and 500 square feet at 645 McLean Ave.

Since its start in Dallas in 2002, MetroPCS has established its unlimited no-contract service in more than 300 cities and 14 of the nation’s 25 major markets, including much of California, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Detroit and most of Florida. The company by the end of 2008 had about 5.4 million subscribers nationwide, a 37 percent increase from year-end 2007. It is the largest unlimited, flat-rate cell phone provider in the nation, according to MetroPCS officials.

Daniel J. Olmetti, vice president and general manager of MetroPCS New York, said the company’s initial metropolitan service area covers about 11 million potential customers and includes Yonkers and Mount Vernon. The company plans to expand in Westchester in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter this year, reaching north of I-287 as far as Thornwood and Hawthorne, he said. MetroPCS has about 130 employees at the office it opened in July 2007 at 5 Skyline Drive in Hawthorne.

Olmetti said the company by the end of 2009 expects to cover about 17 million potential customers in New York and New Jersey. It has no plans now to open company stores in Westchester, relying instead on exclusive dealers and big-box retailers such as Best Buy to carry its products.

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